Tina Griego

Griego: Divine touch of Denver history hopes to save its future

By Tina GriegoThe Denver Post

Posted:
02/23/2012 01:00:00 AM MST

Updated:
02/23/2012 08:30:00 AM MST

Historic Denver board member Katrina Benes takes in the view inside the former Cathedral High School during an open house
Tuesday. Cathedral parish, Historic Denver, Capitol Hill United Neighborhoods and Colorado Preservation Inc., groups that once
clashed over the fate of the building, came together on having an open house for prospective buyers. It's an old building. Coming up
with $4.1 million is just the first hurdle. Rehabbing it is a different challenge. (Kathryn Scott Osler, The Denver Post)

For Sale: Gorgeous 1921 Spanish Renaissance Revival building. Former home of Cathedral High School and convent. Gymnasium and 65 parking spaces included. Located at 1840 Grant, within walking distance of downtown. Sale price: $4.1 million. Motivated seller.

An open house was held Tuesday at the building that was Cathedral High School for 61 years. It went back on the market after the last prospect, the developer of a nearby luxury condominium tower, realized its demolition plans were, shall we say, unpopular.

This was a disappointment to Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception administrators. The parish has been trying to sell the school, gym and parking lot for more than three years. Taxes and building maintenance cost "upwards of $100,000 a year," at a time when the parish has many other needs, says Mary Ellen Lederman, parish administrator.

The idea for the open house came from Capitol Hill United Neighborhoods, the very group that, in the seller's view, has contributed to the muddying of the waters. CHUN, together with Historic Denver and Colorado Preservation Inc., applied for historic designation for the buildings in order to save them. They have since pulled the application and a concerted effort at cooperation is underway. Together, parish and preservationists hosted the open house.

About 50 people showed up: developers, real estate agents, neighbors and former students, especially eager to explore the once off-limits nuns' cells.

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"This could be a crown jewel in this town," said planner/developer Ed Ryan. He happened to be driving past when he noticed the brokers outside. "You could do a hostel, a bed and breakfast. There's a real need for working spaces for artists and writers in interesting buildings, and Lord knows, this is one.

"These little guys" — he walked inside a narrow nun's cell — "are they offices? No. They're too small, except, wow, you have these French windows going out into the courtyard. ... This isn't easy or someone would have already done it."

(Kathryn Scott Osler, The Denver Post)

In the school on the other side of the courtyard, general contractor and developer Daria Castiglione of Castle Lion Development strode up the stairs.

"God, it is just a gorgeous old building," she said. "The thing here would be to find a way to keep the character intact. The outside isn't difficult, but the inside ... what to do with the inside?"

The parish long has rented classrooms to the Grant Street Art Studios. On Tuesday, all but one were locked, as was the library. Artist Frederic Pichon was working on the top floor of the building, in an airy, bright studio he shares with two other artists.

"I am from Europe, and I believe at least some old buildings need to be preserved," he said. "People think in the short term of profit, but keeping a building such as this for the next generation is an asset for the city."

Patty McClelland wandered past and onto the fire escape, where she looked across to the convent and down into the courtyard.

"Isn't this beautiful?" she said. "My mother, Marzette Hickey, went to high school here. So did her brothers and sisters. Plus, I'm in real estate, and I'm trying to wrap my brain around how to save it."

It's an old building. Coming up with $4 million is just the first hurdle. Rehabbing it is a different challenge. Recognizing this, CHUN has said it would drop opposition to the demolition of the gymnasium. This would give a developer more land to play with. Still, one question dominated conversations: Can we make the numbers work?

A representative for the Catholic parish that runs what once was Cathedral High School says the church should not be expected to subsidize the preservation of historic buildings like this one. (Kathryn Scott Osler, The Denver Post)

"Developers, names that you would know who have been successful, have looked at this building, and they shake their heads. It just doesn't pencil," says broker Stephen Roesinger, senior managing director of Newmark Knight Frank, which is representing Cathedral parish. "We would love to see it stay, but it has to make economic sense."

In more blunt terms, he says the parish shouldn't be asked to subsidize preservation. If historic preservationists want to save the building, "then they need to find a way to buy it."

Out there are people of means who believe some buildings embody a time, a set of values, an aesthetic that reveals a place as no book can. Of those people, Monsignor Thomas Fryar, pastor of the Cathedral, asks, "Why don't you come forward to assist, so that the parish doesn't have to suffer as a consequence?"

It is a fair question, a money-where-your-mouth-is proposition. As for the neighbors and preservationists, says John Olson, Historic Denver's director of preservation programs. "We're looking for a win-win-win." For the parish. For the preservationists. For the state.